A little bit of the big time

It’s that time of the year again when us mere mortals are given the chance to play football on a world stage. I’m talking about the release of FIFA 11 across all formats today. It’s the closest many if us can come to being real footballers (except the prostitute visits) and retailers are falling over themselves to offer the lowest price for the game.

Inevitably, the grocers are offering the best price points with ASDA pushing FIFA 11 for 97p when you trade in a selected game and Sainsbury’s doing it for £25 when you spend £30 in store. A good deal for the consumer at last.

Review to follow – FIFA 11 that is, not the prostitute – (worst £6.80 I’ve ever spent).

There’s been a  big retailer marketing push behind this too. Here’s the trailer / fancy TV advert:

It’s not just the birds that are angry

So if you don’t know what Angry Birds is I have no hope for you. This game has been the #1 app in literally every country with over 6 million sold and now available to Android users. Big money for Rovio who make the game, but big frustration for me – simply because it’s so bloody hard. I thought completing every level was tough, but getting those elusive three stars is nigh on impossible. The smug look on those green pigs when you fail is enough to make you throw your iPhone at the nearest hard surface.

I’ve heard that there’s talks of an Angry Birds movie; at first I did laugh, but there have been even stranger brand extensions that have worked, and making movies from video games is nothing new, so why not? There’s already a big global fan base in place which could easily be exploited. While we wait for the Hollywood big cheeses to get out their cheque books, have a look at the ‘cinematic trailer’ above – I’m getting back on the hunt for golden eggs.

I’m joining the Black Ops

If you know me, you’ll know that I am pretty obsessed with playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 online on the PS3 (yes I do have a girlfriend) and that I have now managed to rack up a solid 7 days playing it online since its release in November last year. The beauty of the game is that the online mutiplayer experience is awesome, and no two games are ever the same – it’s pretty addictive. It was reportedly the biggest entertainment release of all time

The latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise is Call of Duty: Black Ops. Activision, the game’s publisher thinks this title will surpass the $1bn sales of MW2. And they’re probably right. I know this one has been developed by Treyarch and not Infinity Ward, but Activision is starting to push out the marketing campaign in a big way.

Black Ops looks like it has lots of new features than the previous title. My favourite is ‘Theatre Mode’ which lets you put together a highlight reel of your kills to share on YouTube et al. It’s probably a bit too geeky for me to actually use, but cool in any case. Check out the other cool new features in the video above.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is out on the 9th of November and can be pre orderd here – but I’m going to wait and see if one of the supermarkets do the £26 deal like Sainsburys did last year.